Dear all,

I'm new here and would like to seek some help. I would like to be ordinate to become a monk for a short term period of time. I would like to ask that is there any good forest monastery around Southern or Central of Thailand that I can ordinate to be a short term monk (1-3 months)? What are the terms and conditions required for me to be ordinated? As I speaks only limited Thai language, is it possible for me to ordinate as a monk?

Kindly advice.

Many thanks.

Hi,

 

As far as I know, you need a visa for religious purpose to engage in ordination process, but if you are going to Vipassana only, then you do not need special visa(you can do it with a tourist visa or any other type of visa).

 

• speak Thai language is necessary otherwise it'll be a barrier between you and your master(unless your master speaks English).
• it is possible a 10 days retreat in Surathani Provice - Chaya (if I'm not wrong they speak english there, since it has a lot of foreign attending this specific retreat - the retreat's name is Suan Mokkh).
• Singburi Province has a 7 days retreat in a very famous Wat, but no english, I attended this retreat many years ago, when Luang Po Jarun was still alive - search the internet for Luan Po Jarun, he was the master head of this temple).

I have a little PDF file that explain in great details about ordination in Thailand.

 

I hope you find what you are looking for.

Regards.

ordination.pdf

Dear Deepcell,

 

Many thanks for your information. I think I better start with a good retreat and then only seek more information about the procedures to get myself ordinate if I would want to further into it.

 

Buddha Bless.

 

Sincerely,

Alex

Hello Alex,

 

Yes, the retreat will give you pretty much a lot that you need to know before engage in monkhood. It is unbelievable how much you can learn in only a week living a monastic life.

 

I still have my booklet they gave me at Wat Ampawan (Singburi Province) and it is written in English, what helps a lot to follow the chanting/sutras.  Also they have a video at the beginning of the retreat demonstrating how to proceed. I had no problem to follow their instructions, except that they do not speak English, and if you are in doubt, better to write it down in a paper and find an answer later.

 

Both the retreats I cited are good, but Suan Mokkh is a truly forest retreat, unfortunately I had no opportunity to engage in their retreat yet, then I can't give you further details, also I heard in North-East of Thailand have more places like that.

 

p.s.: Always remember that when engaging in retreat in Thailand: "the simple the better."

 

Regards,